Jerry Bruce Hale was a 46-year-old White male who was last seen in the Doniphan, Missouri area on August 8, 2019. His case was entered in NamUs as Missing Person case MP76434, with the date of last contact recorded as August 8, 2019, and Doniphan in Ripley County listed as the place from which he was missing. At the time he disappeared, Jerry was described as approximately 6 feet 2 inches tall and about 190 pounds, with sandy-colored hair and blue eyes.
A distinctive identifying feature noted in his case file was a tattoo on his shoulder or shoulder blade that read “lookin good and feelin good.” The available public information did not describe the circumstances leading up to his last known contact in detail, only that he was last seen in the Doniphan area around that date, leaving his loved ones and the local community with painful uncertainty.
For years, Jerry’s disappearance remained unresolved. The Ripley County Sheriff’s Department was listed as the investigating agency in the NamUs case, and the public record reflected only limited information about what may have happened after he was last seen. Another public missing-person listing also identified the same key facts: Jerry Hale was missing from Doniphan, Missouri, his date missing was August 8, 2019, he was 46 at the time, and the associated NamUs number was MP76434. In the absence of a detailed public timeline, the case stood as one of those quiet, devastating disappearances in which the most basic facts were known, but the answers that mattered most remained out of reach.
More than six years after Jerry was last seen, authorities reported a sad development. Human remains were discovered on private property in rural Ripley County on November 4, 2025. An autopsy was conducted on November 7, 2025, and the remains were identified as Jerry B. Hale, who had been reported missing to the Ripley County Sheriff’s Office on August 28, 2019. Public reports stated that the investigation into his death remained active and ongoing, with the Ripley County Sheriff’s Office, the Ripley County Coroner’s Office, and the Missouri State Highway Patrol’s Division of Drug and Crime Control involved in the investigation.
Jerry’s case is now understood not as an active missing-person search, but as a resolved missing-person case with a tragic outcome: he was located deceased. The discovery brought an end to the question of where he was, but it did not publicly answer every question about what happened to him after he vanished from the Doniphan area in August 2019. Authorities continued to ask for information from anyone who might know something related to the case, directing tips to the Ripley County Sheriff’s Office or Missouri State Highway Patrol Sgt. Jeff Johnson. The overview of the case is that Jerry Bruce Hale, a 46-year-old man from the Doniphan, Missouri area, was last seen on August 8, 2019; his disappearance remained unresolved for more than six years; his remains were found in rural Ripley County in November 2025; and the investigation into the circumstances of his death was reported as active and ongoing.Last Seen: Aug 8, 2019
